Seekers Of The Truth

2 Decades Shunning Masks

Written by: PP on 15/07/2010 00:13:27

With a name like Seekers Of The Truth, I don't think anyone is in doubt about the genre that these Frenchmen belong to. Previously known as Shit Happens during the mid 90s before changing their name into SOTT, they've been around for a long while now and have played alongside a number of hardcore heavyweights including Shelter, Snapcase, Agnostic Front, and Knuckledust during the years. Their newest album "2 Decades Shunning Masks" gives the impression that it might be a compilation, but as far as I can tell, its 20-strong tracklisting is all new material.

Unlike the vast majority of hardcore bands, SOTT believes in a clean-vocal driven approach to the genre, which is a nice and refreshing change to the monotone crap we're used to hearing from European hardcore bands these days. The first eight or nine tracks of the record follow the footsteps of hardcore legends Champion, offering a similar high-energy burst of clean, positive-hardcore, with an occasional technical guitar riff recalling the latest two Propagandhi records. Similarities can also be found to the hardcore punk of Your Demise especially after their new vocalist aligned the band's style much closer to Champion than the semi-metalcore it used to be in the past. Check out "Backdraft" for a good example. Soon after, however, the band shifts its focus toward a more melodic side of hardcore championed by bands like Ignite and especially H2O, whose influence is beyond obvious on the best track of the album, "When I Shun The Mask". From here on, we're balancing on a tightrope between New York melodic hardcore like the latter and bright West Coast hardcore in the vein of the former.

The added layer of melody found throughout the second half of the album suits Seekers Of The Truth much better, as it gives them a less of a serious, tough-guy image than the story told by the first half of the disc. One's left wondering why the band didn't include more melody earlier, as they are clearly much better at writing melodic hardcore tracks. Leave the tough-guy stuff for bands like In Other Climes, Kickback, and even Hatebreed. Because you can't tell me that a song like "Just Me" isn't infinitely better than "There For You", for instance. Anyway, looking at the release as a whole, it's a good slap of European hardcore offering both heavy and light approaches to the genre. Check it out, if any of the bands mentioned in this review say anything to you.

7

Download: When I Shun The Mask, Just Me, Tribute
For the fans of: Champion, Your Demise, H2O, Ignite
Listen: Myspace

Release date mid 2009
Disagree Records / Customcore Records

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